Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/192

164 off the eggs and sucked them without his knowing it. Then she put the egg shells in the doorway, and when he went in he crushed them. She said, "Now you have broken the eggs, go and get two more." He went and got two more, leaving four. She did the same as before; she sucked the eggs and put the shells beside his bed; when he went to lie down he broke them. She sent him for two more. Finally, she sent him to fetch the last two which remained. When he was in the tree a Picanin, who was at the foot of the tree, sang:

The man tried to get down; but the bird came and struck him and he fell in the water and was killed.

There was a woman who had a child, and it was a very pleasing one. Every day the men and women came and said, "Let him come with us and learn to dance." She said, "Very well; when you come back knock at the door and I will let you in." Another day she said, "No, I will not let him go." The child said, "I want to," and the others took him; they did this every day. Then the other children became jealous; they said, "This boy is too pleasing; let us kill him." The brother of one of the children came to fetch the child to the dance. The mother said, "Do not go"; but he took the child, and when he had taken him far away he killed him.

They brought him back to the mother's house; she was away in another house. They laid him dead on his mother's couch. She came in and thought he was asleep and lay beside him. In the morning she rose; but he lay